Gardening hacks for Growing Your Own Produce: The Handy Hacks You Need To Know!

Today, a lot of families are choosing to go organic, with the hope that by doing so, they will be able to lead longer and healthier lives. Various studies have shown that the chemicals used to preserve fruits and vegetables can impact our health in many ways. Because of this, many of us now refuse to buy non-organic fruits and vegetables.

The only downside to choosing to go organic is the cost, which is why a lot of organic families now opt to grow their own produce. However, there’s a common misconception that growing your own produce is time-consuming and stressful. (This has put a lot of us off of growing our own foods.)

However, growing your own fruits and vegetables doesn’t have to be time-consuming or stressful. If you’re smart about how you go about it, growing your own produce can be much easier than you would think. Plus, many studies have shown that gardening can be a fantastic stress reliever. So growing your own fruits and vegetables shouldn’t cause you any stress. (If anything, it should reduce your stress levels.)

To help make growing your own organic produce easier (and more effective), below are some handy hacks to take note of.

One of the most important things when it comes to growing your own produce is reading up about it. Gardening isn’t a skill that we’re born with; it’s something that has to be learned. So, before you start growing your own vegetables, take the time to do you research. Learn about the different planting options, best methods for encouraging growth, and the best things to grow.

The more reading you do, the better understanding you’ll have of what it takes to successfully grow your own organic produce. Take the time to read up on each and every vegetable or fruit you want to grow, to get an idea of the care that different types need.

Get sprinklers

When it comes to growing your own produce, one of the most important things is also one of the most basic – how much water your plants are getting. If you don’t get this just right, your vegetable plants and fruit bushes won’t grow properly. Thus impacting the amount of produce you successfully grow.

Of course, there’s not just the worry of your vegetable garden and fruit bushes not getting enough water. There’s also the concern of them getting too much water. While not enough water will leave your plants withered due to a lack of nourishment, too much water will drown them. To ensure that your plants (and the rest of your garden) are getting enough water, consider getting sprinklers for your home. To prevent your plants from being flooded, in times of extreme rain, attempt to cover them over with tarpaulin.

Label each thing you’re growing

Each different type of produce requires different care, so it’s important to ensure that you know what’s growing where. The key to this is making sure to label your produce. You can choose to label each individual plant, or you can group them into sections, and place signs in each section. How you choose to go about it is up to you, it completely depends on what your personal preferences are.

In terms of what to use as labels, paper is obviously no good. Wooden and plastic labels tend to work well. As do pebbles with an image of a certain fruit or vegetable drawn onto them. By placing signs saying what is being grown, you can make the process of ensuring that your produce gets the right care, much easier.

To ensure that you get a fantastic crop each and every time, soak your seeds before planting them. The night before you want to plant a packet of seeds, soak them in water. Leave them for 12 hours, and they should start to develop roots. This will make it more likely that when you plant them, they take successfully. For best results, soak your seeds in a small amount of water and keep the beaker that they’re in, in a warm place.

Keep the insects at bay

If there’s one thing that is a produce grower’s worst nightmare, it’s an attack by insects. Slugs, snails, and all sorts of other insects feed off of plants, and so, it’s important to protect your produce from them. The question is, of course, how do you do this without the use of traditional pesticides? Well, it’s actually much easier than you would think – there are plenty of natural alternatives to pesticides.

One natural insect deterrent is used coffee grounds. Simply sprinkle your used grounds around your plants, and this should help to keep the bugs at bay. The great thing about coffee grounds is that they also make a great fertilizer, so you’re killing two birds with one stone. Just remember, if you’re going to use coffee grounds to fertilize and keep pests at bay, the coffee that you use needs to be organic.

Get the whole family to pitch in

To make growing your own produce that little bit easier, don’t go it alone. Make growing organic fruits and vegetables a family affair. Instead of going solo with your produce growing, get the whole family to pitch in. This will make the process of keeping your vegetable garden in good shape much easier.

Perhaps you could give each family member an area to focus on. So, for example, while you focus on the root vegetables, your partner could take care of any fruit trees. And your kids could be in charge of the herb garden or fruit bushes. Ideally, the kids should have an easy job, as well as one that’s fun and enjoyable. They say that many hands make light work, and when it comes to growing your own produce, this is so true. The more help you can get, the better.

So there you have it, a guide to growing your own fruits and vegetables the easy way. The truth is that growing your own organic produce isn’t difficult, as long as you are smart about how you go about it.